Once up out of Hermit Creek the trail leveled out as it meandered back and forth across the Tonto Platform. The traverse around the nameless side canyon below Columbus Point took maybe an hour and by around 10 AM we were out at the cliffs overlooking the river. The view was glorious and we got see a couple of river parties running Hermit Rapids. From there he headed up into Travertine Canyon and had an early lunch at the back end before heading back out to the river. There are some nice camping spots in Travertine Canyon and if I do this trip again I think I would plan a night there. We had lunch around 11:30 and were back out at the cliff above the river around 1 PM.

The traverse along this next section of the Tonto has its scary moments when the trail gets a little narrow and all there is is a wall on one side going up and a fairly steep on the other going down. The view of the river makes it worth it. As we approached Boucher Rapids we were able to make out the beach that we would be camping on that night, and were able to see another river party running Boucher Rapids.

The Tonto makes a long U-turn here as you head back up the east arm of Boucher. It takes a lot longer than you would think it should. It was around 3 PM when we finally reached the junction with the Boucher Trail and started our descent into Boucher Creek. The descent into the creek bed went fairly quickly and from there it only took about an hour, or maybe a little longer, to make our way down to the river. We reached the river around 4:30 PM and made camp on the back side of a huge dune just to the west of were Boucher Creek meets the Colorado.